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(Audio) Book Review: RUINS, Book 3 of the Partials Sequence, By Dan Wells

RUINS by Dan Wells is the third and final book in The Partial Sequence. I wrote reviews on the first two books here and here (ICYI) and loved them both. So it’s only right that I write this final review on the final book …

Kira, Samm, and Marcus fight to prevent a final war between Partials and humans in the gripping final installment in the Partials Sequence, a series that combines the thrilling action of The Hunger Gameswith the provocative themes of Blade Runner and The Stand.

There is no avoiding it—the war to decide the fate of both humans and Partials is at hand. Both sides hold in their possession a weapon that could destroy the other, and Kira Walker has precious little time to prevent that from happening. She has one chance to save both species and the world with them, but it will only come at great personal cost.

The follwing excerpt from the book pretty much sums up the plot of this book:

But the war that ended the world was not the last war that the world would ever see, for twelve years later the humans and the Partials were both on the verge of extinction–and each species was willing to destroy the other to survive.

In the first book, PARTIALS, we met Kira Walker. The author pretty much stayed with her and her friends through the story. In FRAGMENTS, if you recall, the crew was split up when Kira left East Meadow in hopes of finding out more about her past and how it was tied to the Partials. But the author broadened his story-telling scope and kept us involved with Kira’s family and friends–how they all coped with the Partial invasion that took place shortly after Kira’s disappearance.

In RUINS, we get the same thing; updates on who’s doing what and where, who they’re doing it with, and this time the stakes are much higher and the story-telling scope has broadened again as some wonderful discoveries are made, juxtaposed by the most terrifying threats to humanity begin to unfold.

It all begins in chapter one, where we readers learn this: “The resistance … smuggled the bomb north toward Partial homeland.”

Yeah. And it’s not referring to a bomb like:

It means …

Basically the human leaders have gotten desperate and now everyone is screwed.

HERE’s WHAT I LOVED: I’ll write as best I can without giving too much away since I loathe spoiler-ish reviews

This whole book was a nail-biter! I literally have no fingernails left!

As I listened to everything that was happening with Kira’s friends that joined The Resitance, and others that were simply trying to survive the Partial Invasion of East Meadow, the only known human city, so the Partials could search for Kira believing that she was the key to curing Partial expiration, (Not sure what that is? See Book 2 review) my mind weaved the world that Wells flawlessly laid out and ached over every bit. Every scene. Every chapter drew me further into this convoluted plot and I cried. More than once.

It seemed like everyone was dying. Everyone was fighting. Everyone had the best intentions and everyone was so, so wrong.

Yet, I was still able to laugh when goofy, sarcastic Marcus, Kira’s BFF, entered the scene. He’s just one of the many characters that I grew to love over this series.

As the final ending drew near, and I could see where it was heading, I kept thinking there was NO WAY that I was right. That there was no way the author was going to actually take this dark story to that very dark place.

But he did. Wells kept upping the ante, raising the stakes and the bar. And here, after reading everything and closing the proverbial book, I’m utterly blown away by how he managed to pull out the ending that he did. It was dark and sad, and so wonderfully done that there’s no way I could give this book–heck! This whole series– 5 STARS!!!

I highly reccommend The Partial Sequence to anyone who loves dramatic, character driven Science Fiction, with lots of dystopian thrills, tossed in with more suspense and a whole lotta love.